Category: Jude

Growing My Anticipation
As We Wait

Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

It is my belief that one of the greatest weaknesses of the modern church is its lack of anticipation. As we read through the New Testament, we see a consistent theme of anticipation for the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In our printed key verse for today, Jude tells us to “keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bringyoutoeternallife” (emphasis mine). The early church was continually reminded and motivated by the thought of Jesus’ second coming. I think there were several reasons for this. The first of which is the fact that persecution can be endured when our anticipation is strong. We, as humans, often think in terms of “I can do anything for a short time.” Maybe you feel tired of fighting the devil’s temptation and the cravings of the flesh. Hold on! Jesus is coming back, and considering eternity it won’t be long!

Secondly, the early church’s anticipation was strong because they had been told by angels that Jesus was coming back. Acts 1:11: “Men of Galilee…this same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” We were not standing there to hear this announcement, but don’t we claim to believe in the Word of God? Shouldn’t we live in strong anticipation of Jesus’ second physical appearance? Let’s determine to grow our anticipation for this great event!

Father, I do believe that someday you will speak and Jesus will re-enter our world in physical form. Help me to live that belief today! In Jesus’ Name, amen.